I got into gaming when I was deep in depression/burnout. I think it's time to change some habits. [31F]

About 5 years ago in my mid 20s I ended up having a really bad bout of burnout due to school stress and a combination of overworking myself and having a couple traumatic experiences thrown on top on that. I spent months in bed barely even able to eat or drink. Lost a bunch of weight and was just too mentally drained or exhausted to do anything but either cry or just stare into a wall.

It was around the same time that this little game called Genshin Impact was released. I had never really been a big gamer before (I had dabbled in a couple indie games that I liked the art style of, but not much), but I decided to try it out for a bit because I kept seeing it everywhere. It was easy, not to stressful. At the time, even being able to get out of bed and sit down to play a game for an hour or two felt like a win. Being able to feel some small amount of joy felt like a win, because I had been so depressed for so long. For the time, I do actually feel like it had some part in helping me heal. I've had some very special moments in this game that I really appreciate.

Now several years later... I've gotten into multiple other gacha games (as is very evident from my post history lol) since then. I was still logging in to Genshin daily for multiple years (although I've had some breaks too). And I just find myself not having fun most of the time. The 10-20% when I do enjoy it is really good, but the rest honestly just feels like boring chores motivated by FOMO. I don't like how much my life feels dictated by the constant pressure to keep of that you get with these types of live-service games.

Even worse than the FOMO - I feel like these games just take up soooo much mental space even when I'm not playing. Whenever I have taken breaks of a week or two, I'm always reminded of how much more creative I feel (I'm an artist). How much easier it feels to keep up with chores around my apartment. How much I enjoy things like movies or shows that often have so much better written stories.

And that's really why I want to quit at the very least live service games. When I think of what I want to fill my life with - it's art and creativity and creating, it's stories, it's having a cosy and clean living space, it's being physically active and nourishing myself with good food after. When I spend so much time on my little digital chores, it just takes away so much time, mental space and clarity for me. It's just not worth it, even for the good moments.